NEWTOWN, Conn. — Michael Connors doesn’t remember all the details of Friday’s shooting at his Sandy Hook Elementary School, but he does recall how he felt.

“I was scared. There were a lot of policemen all around, even outside,” the 8-year-old third-grader said hours after the second-largest school shooting in American history, while standing outside St. Rose de Lima Catholic Church in Newtown, site of a vigil Mass for the victims. “We went to a safe place, and my teacher started stacking desks over the windows."

Authorities said Adam Lanza, 20, killed 27 people — including his mother and 20 schoolchildren — before reportedly committing suicide.

Officials as of Friday night had not identified any of the people who were killed at the school other than Lanza himself.

Emotions were raw in this town of 27,000, where it still costs just $2 to see a movie at the Edmond Town Hall Theater. A quiet community in northern Fairfield County about 60 miles from New York, it’s a place where tragedies like Friday’s massacre just don’t happen, residents said.

“I just went to counseling before I came here,” said Ray Horvath, who works for a group called Education Connection. Horvath said he knew about 60 of the roughly 680 students at Sandy Hook, and broke down in tears outside the church after speaking with a colleague and learning the identity of a victim.

“I saw kids I know by name looking horrified. Newtown, the second worst school massacre in U.S. history? It’s not possible. I can’t wait to ask God when I see him,” Horvath said.

A media horde descended upon the church Friday, which remained open all night for people to pray privately. As the pews quickly filled up with mourners, people stood by windows to take part, and a large circle formed on the front lawn, where people sang hymns and comforted one another.

Several people, like Sheila Maher, of Newtown, and Robert Morehouse, of Southbury, lit candles and wept.

Morehouse said he walked five miles to Friday night’s service to show his support for the families of those who lost loved ones.